William Yeatman

The Lieberman-Warner cap and trade bill, S. 2191, was approved by a 4-3 vote of the Subcommittee on Private Sector and Consumer Solutions to Global Warming and Wildlife Protection on Thursday, November 1st. Since Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) is the chairman of the subcommittee and Senator John Warner (R-Va.) is the ranking Republican, this was not a big surprise. The Senators voting in favor were Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ). Those voting against were Senators John Barasso (R-Wyo.), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) and Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.).

It was reported just before the subcommittee’s meeting that the Congressional Budget Office would release a study that demonstrates a cap-and-trade proposal similar to the Lieberman-Warner bill would raise consumer energy costs significantly, while providing approximately $50 billion in annual subsidies to big business special interests.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday, October 31st, voted out the Law of the Sea Treay (LOST) by a 17-4 margin. It has been reported that Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is wasting little time trying to move the treaty to the floor for a ratification vote, which requires a 2/3 majority of those Senators voting. Senator Reid is rushing because he realizes that opposition to LOST is building as Americans find out the threat it poses to American sovereignty, and also how it facilitates a backdoor implementation of Kyoto-style energy rationing regulations.

If the globe’s not warming what do we call global warming?

From Mark Landsbaum

The scary threat of global warming depends entirely, of course, on the globe getting warmer. Duh. Well, guess what.

There’s little dispute that greenhouse gases have increased in the atmosphere, but it’s a leap in logic to assume that increase has heated the planet. As a matter of fact, CO2 levels historically increase after temperatures increase, not before. It’s kinda difficult to cause something by coming along afterward.

So, back to the underlying question. What do the thermometers say?

“There is important disagreement about the temperature record since 1979,” writes S. Fred Singer in his book on global warming, “with satellite data showing a slight cooling and surface thermometers showing a warming.”

“Atmospheric data taken with balloon-borne radiosondes agree with the satellite data,” Singer says.

(Incidentally, many surface thermometer readings are corrupted by placement near heat-radiating asphalt, concrete and machinery.)

“All three sets of observations,” Singer writes, “show much lower trends that what computer models predict.” (page 36)

Then there’s this:

“Surface measurements with thermometers show a warming of 0.13 degree C per decade since 1979, while global satellite measurements using a microwave sensor actually show a slight cooling of the lower troposphere – about -0.04 degree per decade,” says Singer. (page 10)

And then there’s this dagger to the heart of the global warming beast, from page 4:

“There is no detectable anthropogenic (manmade) global warming.”

Matthew Sinclair of the UK Taxpayers' Alliance has a good post up at his personal blog on how alarmists can completely ignore data that contradict their positions and turn the argument round to supporting their concerns.